Pentagon revealed the details of a test flight at a speed of 20,900 km / h in a military strike on anywhere in the world in 1 hour

23/04/2012

Disclosed the results obtained last summer, the trials of the new technology. This lightning-fast aircraft will allow the Pentagon to launch a military strike on anywhere on Earth in less than an hour.

In August, the research wing of the Pentagon known as DARPA, has conducted a test flight of an experimental aircraft capable of moving up to 20 times faster than the speed of sound.

This drone, reminiscent of an arrowhead, was named the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2. It started from a military base in Santa Barbara and was brought into the upper atmosphere of the Earth four-stage Minotaur IV launcher from Orbital Sciences Corp.

Upon reaching a certain height, which is kept secret, the plane is separated from his protective shell in the rocket and began vertical flight down to Earth, and then gradually adopted a horizontal position, and began to soar over the Pacific Ocean at 20 times the speed of sound, Mach 20 .

Their plan was that within 30 minutes to fly to the west, and then sink it near the Kwajalein Atoll.

But he completed his mission in just 9 minutes after the start, for unknown reasons.

Only now, in his statement, DARPA reported that the high-speed led to the failure of individual parts of the skin with airframe. Caused by this breach led to the emergence of strong shock waves around the aircraft, moving at a speed of 20,900 kilometers per hour, and sudden rotation.

Falcon, created by Lockheed Martin Corp., Durable composite is composed of carbon material. The surface temperature, according to calculations of scientists, should reach 3,500 degrees, enough to melt steel.

"The primary shock wave from the consequences of which our plane was able to recover during the second flight, 100 times higher than those loads, which was designed aircraft," - said the executive director of DARPA, keygens Gabriel. "This is a significant acknowledgment of how much farther we advance in understanding management of hypersonic flight using an aerodynamic surface."

This flight demonstrated stable aerodynamic control of the flight at speeds exceeding Mach 20, for about three minutes.

Hypersonic flight is incredibly difficult to perform. Supersonic speed - a movement faster than the speed of sound, or Mach 1, and hypersonic - is the rate that exceeds the sound of five or more times.

The August launch was the second flight of Falcon. The first was held in April 2010 and also ended prematurely, after 9 minutes of flight.